The Heart Does Not Grow Back

Dale Sampson, the narrator of Venturini’s debut, is an awkward, smalltown Illinois teen obsessed with Regina, a popular girl who is out of his league. Despite the urging of his best friend, local baseball star Mack, Dale won’t let go of his infatuation. But when Dale is critically injured defending Regina from her sadistic boyfriend, Clint, Dale learns he has an ability far beyond the average teen: his limbs and organs regenerate. What follows is Dale’s years-long struggle to cope both with the loss of Regina, who was killed in Clint’s attack, and with the responsibility he feels regarding his newfound power. Venturini’s novel pleases with some standard superhero-origin fare—academic teen turned extraordinary, the local high school caste system, star-crossed first love. The story struggles from there. Dale has fittingly evil opposition in a local drug dealer and the government agent who, predictably, wishes to turn Dale into a lab rat at Research Triangle Park. Dale’s social awkwardness, however, is his biggest hurdle—and that anticlimatic psychological struggle leaves the narrative voice sounding misanthropic in spots. (Nov.)